The stone line, which appeared to form a c-shape towards one end, was thought to have marked a ritual procession route.

But no evidence of stones was found during an excavation by the the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project which involved experts from universities across the country and the National Trust.

How archaeologists thought the row of stones looked

National Trust archaeologist Dr Nicola Snashall said: “The response from the radar was so good that the team thought they were dealing with a whole series of stones lying on their side, buried beneath the bank of this ancient earthwork."

"What we've discovered are that there are two enormous pits for timber posts. They have got ramps at the sides to lower posts into.

"They did contain timbers which have been vertically lifted out and removed at some stage.

The row of stones was believed to be a procession route

"The top was then filled in with chalk rubble and then the giant henge bank was raised over the top."

The team believes that the giant timber monument was erected after settlers had begun living at the site. They eventually took out the timbers and put up and enormous bank and ditch which remains today.

Durrington Walls, which sits in a depression not far from the River Avon, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, is one of the largest known henge monuments, measuring around 1,640 feet in diameter and built around 4,500 years ago in the Neolithic, or new stone age.

It is surrounded by a ditch of up to 54 feet wide and a bank of more than three foot high and is built on the same summer solstice alignment as Stonehenge. Some archaeolgists have suggested that the builders of Stonehenge lived at Durrington.